Friday, December 03, 2010

I woke up 5 in the morning. I was really excited. I couldn't wait to have some breakfast because i felt so hungry. At 7 am, I went to the restaurant and greet the receptionist. When he saw me wearing hijab, he said: “Assalamu’alaikum good moslem!” Haha. Then I asked him how to say good morning in Dutch, but he didn't understand what i was talking about. He didn't understand English at all.

After that, I looked at my breakfast menu. There were bottles of white and chocolate milk, orange juice, and mineral water. And for the food they provided us some breads, cheese, meat, cucumber, and tomatoes. I looked at the meat and asked to the receptionist: “Is it pork?” and he didn't understand. So I asked again while pointing the meat: “pork?”, and then he closed a plastic wrap that i already opened and he opened the plastic wrap beside it. Ok, I think the one he opened is chicken or beef. So I took that meat and ate it right away!

After felt really full i had some conversations with a girl receptionist. She spoke English well. Suddenly she said: “Those meats are pork, I believe you don't eat them because you are wearing a veil”. AND THEN I WANNA VOMIT JUST RIGHT THERE! MAAAN I JUST ATE SOME PORK! Lesson learned, I don't wanna eat meat until I am really certain of it. After that I was wandering around the hotel.

Amsterdam in the morning

This day I had to meet the travel agent in Amstelveen. It’s quite far from Amsterdam. It was about errr 30 minutes i think to reach Amstelveen. So we decided to go there with taxi. Expensive, i know, but we had a lot of luggage and I'm not really sure that everybody could take the bus or tram with their entire big luggage. Mine is not really big anyway. I only have one medium size luggage, 1 backpack bag, and 1 handbag. That’s all.

However, I really love the view of Netherlands in the morning. There were no clouds, no blue sky, no sun (since it's already in the end of Fall Season). Just a flat gray sky, which at some point I really enjoyed that kind of view. Mystical yet beautiful. I took some pictures from the taxi and the result was not really good since the glass of the taxi is a lil bit dirty.

Amstelveen is small town. It’s really different from Amsterdam. There are a lot of farm, green scenery, and not really crowded. I love the atmosphere that Amstelveen gave me.

Amstelveen

Plan for this day was visit the Indonesia’s Embassy in Netherlands. It’s a little bit far from Amsterdam, approximately 45 minutes from Amsterdam to Den Haag.We went there by tram and train.

And voila! We arrived at Den Haag! Something happened while we were trying to reach the meeting point (with people from Indonesia's Embassy). My friend, Echa was left behind in the tram because he was late to pay the tram! We all were panic and tried to call Echa. And the good thing is a very nice man from Indonesia's Embassy picked up Echa in the next tram-stop. Fyuuuh, thank God.

After had a little chaotic situation, people from Indonesia's Embassy took us to a Chinese restaurant! We ordered Fried Rice, Bakmie, Cah Kangkung since we really missed Indonesian’s Food! We ate a lot and then we went straight to the Embassy.

In the embassy we had a really good discussion with Mr. Umar Hadi, the Vice Head of Indonesia’s Embassy in Netherlands. We were discussing about Indonesia-Netherlands relationship, as we know that Indonesia had been colonized for 350 years by Netherlands. We asked a lot about post-colonialism that happened in both countries. I asked about the tourism strategy that Netherlands used, because I saw a lot of Indonesian restaurant and Local restaurant that provided Indonesian Menu and use it as their tourism strategy.

with Mr. Umar Hadi

After long discussion we went back to our hotel. I felt a lil bit tired since I didn't sleep enough. By the time we arrived at the hotel, our tour group were there and we met our tour guide. His name is Luigi Pasqualle, originally comes from Italy. He explained a lot about tomorrow trip and I felt really excited for tomorrow morning!

Anyway, what I learned for today are: First, do not eat meat until you are really sure whether it's chicken, beef, fish or not. In my religion, pork is forbidden. I managed myself not to eat meat for a while, since pork are everywhere! I tried to drink a lot of milk and bread. At least I didn't lose my energy for only eating bread and milk. Second, there was no traffic jam in Netherlands. Even there were a lot of people walking around, there were not really much cars in Netherlands. And also for the train and tram, very neat! I have to say that Indonesia should have neat transportation. No one eat or drink in the bus, so there will be no rubbish there.

Ok, that's all for the second day. Just wait for the next day, ok? Btw, have you ever visit Amsterdam? If yes, please tell me, I would like to hear your story :)

Wednesday, December 01, 2010

As i promised you in the last post, i will tell you about my trip to West Europe! Yeah! Thanks God I had a chance to go to Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, and France!

Actually, it wasnt a really long trip. Since i only had 12 days to go to six countries. I only had 2 nights in Amsterdam, 1 night in around Rhineland, Germany, 1 night in Munich, only seeing around in Austria, then we continued to Venice for 1 night and Florence for 2 nights, 1 night in Switzerland, and 2 nights in Paris! That’s quite exhausting you know, because we were using a bus from country to country! But, (ok there’s a BIG BUT here :p) i really enjoy this trip!

So ok, let me start from days in Amsterdam!

1st Day in Amsterdam, 18th of November 2010.

me at Schipol Airport.

We arrived around 1 pm at Schipol Airport. Because of a little misunderstanding with the Indonesia’s travel agent we didn’t have any place to sleep for the first day. So, we decided to find some cheap hotels by ourselves. Because there were nobody know hostels in Netherlands, so we decided to let some people to find some hostels while the other wait at the airport. From Schipol Airport to Amsterdam, we need to take train and it costs 7.90 euro. Man! That was expensive! I think it will be only 2-3 euro you know, if we change the currecy in Rupiahs it will be: 7.90 times 12.000 = Rp 94.800! Well anyway, we have to go with that train. And you know what, it was only take 10 minutes from Schipol to Amsterdam! Yeah, expensive!

Amsterdam

Btw, something funny happenned when one of my friend bought the train ticket. My friends asked this: “At what time the train will depart, sir?” and then the man answered in Indonesia language: “Keretanya akan datang jam empat kurang seperempat! Indonesia sedang merayakan Idul Adha bukan? Selamat Idul Adha!” (The train will depart at a quarter to four! Indonesia is celebrating Idul Adha right? Happy Ied!). Hahaha, that’s kinda funny since he is a total foreigner to us, there was like no Indonesia’s gen in his appearence. He is totally BULE (yeah you know what I mean). And after had short conversation, we knew that his father is an Indonesian. (sorry i dont have any photos of the train, because we were really busy carrying our luggages)

Amsterdam city at night

And here we are, arrived at Amsterdam. It was really crowded and COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLD!! Man it was 5 degrees (Celcius)! I never felt that kind of weather for err 14years??? Since the last winter I had was in Canada when I was 3 or 4 years old. And i kinda forget how does it feel in fall to winter season. Well, i already prepared for this matters. You know, borrowing some coats, buy some leg warmer, thick socks, boots, gloves, even ear mops! But you know what, the most part that really feel thecold is face! Yeah! I dont have any things to covered my face! Oh man, how should I covered my face anyway? I won’t see a thing! So, yeah, well, me and all my friends were trying to deal with it.

A little part of the hotel

And i finally found my hotel . It’s Neutral Hotel. It costs 30 euro for each person and the room could only filled with 3 person. So the room rate is 90 euro. Yeah, again, EXPENSIVE. But thanks god it is right in the center of Amsterdam. There is McDs, lots of souvenir shop, there a marche plaza (big market), a square, madame tussaud museum (and i didn’t go there because the cue is very loooong and its a lil bit expensive), the diamond centre, etc etc.

After have a lil bit of rest in my little tiny room, I decided to have a walk around. I bought cheese burger in McDs, which costs around 1-2 euro, and then window shopping at the souvenir shops. I didnt buy anything because i thought i have a lot of time to shop later. So after walking around we decided to go back to the hotel and have some rest.

some souvenirs

The conclusion for today is, everything in here is expensive. And i cant keep thinking: “How much it cost in Rupiahs?” because in the end i will buy nothing, i will eat nothing, and i will not take train or the bus or bla bla bla. I am trying not to convert any price i have looked and trying to be a lil bit loyal. Now i live in Europe, not in Indonesia. So i gotta deal with this matters.

This post is long enough and i dont wanna make you bored with LONG LONG LONG POST. So just wait for the second day ok? XoXo. (ah and really sorry for my bad english).

Friday, September 24, 2010

Another photo shoot with Diah (senior high school friend). And I just notice that I had a lot of photo shoot at Kebun Raya! Hahaha, i can't find any good spots for having photo shoot in Bogor, so it's just back to the basic: Kebun Raya, over and over again. Haha.

Anyway, enjoy these photos. I hope you understand what I'm trying to deliver in these photos :)